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Keith Stroup

Marijuana reform advocate | Founder, NORML | Class of 1965

Meet the only alum in this series to have been kicked out of the UI for a whole year.

And no, it didn’t have anything to do with Keith Stroup’s future career calling as an advocate for the legalization of marijuana.

“I graduated from the U of I in 1965, so my memory of the local drinking establishments is foggy, but I recall there was one main place — Kam´s — right in the heart of Campustown and not far from my fraternity, where we did a lot of socializing," says the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

“What I remember most about my undergraduate days was that I was kicked out of school for a year for what was termed ‘conduct unbecoming a student´ when a fraternity brother and I drank too much beer one evening and ordered a lot of pizzas to be delivered to a sorority across the street, then boarded ourselves up in the chapter room when the police came to investigate.”